bottleneck how to?

Subject: bottleneck how to?
From: onlyme
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 04:09 PM

Does anyone know how to (safely!) get the neck off of a bottle without buying one of those arts and craft doodahs which would only get used once ? Its just one of those things y,know (shrug :))PS ..I KNOW...first empty the bottle...

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 04:14 PM

soak a piece of thin cotton string in rubbing alcohol - tie it around the glass bottle at the point you want to "cut" it. enflame. as soon as flames go out rub the same area with an ice cube.

it usually works.

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: MudGuard
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 04:25 PM

Do you have a tool which is sold here in Germany by the name of Dremel - looks like it is available worldwide: Dremel?

And if you have it, do you have a small "diamond cutting wheel" (or whatever the correct translation for Diamant-Trennscheibe is ;-))

If so, empty the bottle.

Get yourself protective glasses to prevent tiny pieces of glass from jumping into your eyes!

Now, the complicated part:
get yourself (with Dremel and bottle) to a wash basin.
Get the water dripping fast or a very thin continuous stream.
Firmly hold the bottle in such a way that the water is dripping/running on the position where you are going to cut.

First do a cut all around the bottle, but only a fraction of the glass' thickness. Then work in deeper and deeper.

Use high speed, almost no pressure!
And always keep the water dripping on the cut!

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: onlyme
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 04:27 PM

thanks that sounds like it might provide a good evenings entertainment, having first located rubbing alcohol . I'm more familiar with the sort that came in me bottle !

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: onlyme
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 04:29 PM

Ah mudguard..an excuse to buy a dremel ! things are looking up

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 04:30 PM

if it will burn you can use the drinking kind - but why waste good drinking booze?

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: onlyme
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 04:33 PM

no no mmario , but what is this rubbing stuff usually used for ..the mind is beginning to as they say, boggle

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: MudGuard
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 04:35 PM

Do you really need an excuse for buying a Dremel (or some other brand of this kind of tool)?

I use it so often I wonder how I could live without it...

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: onlyme
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 04:36 PM

hey once i needed an excuse to buy a computer :)

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: onlyme
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 05:50 PM

solved the rubbing alcohol mystery...known here as surgical spirit so i will give mmarios idea a try tomorrow , and the dremel will have to languish on the christmas list yet again .thanks folks

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: Mark Clark
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 07:04 PM

I just took Fury Lewis’ suggestion and used a hack saw. As long as you score it clear around it will be okay, even if it breaks. Grind any sharp edges and, as Fury says “That can’t even cutcha. Nowhere.”

      - Mark

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 09:39 PM

There's a type of hacksaw blade that, instead of having teeth like a regular blade, is made by adhering coarse bits of silicon carbide to the blade shaft. I've used them in a pinch to cut ceramic tile so they should do a good job of scoring glass. They also last about ten times as long as conventional blades.

There's also a version specifically for cutting odd shapes in tile. It has the carbide bits adhered to a length of steel rope (cable) instead of a flat blade. Sorta like the hacksaw version of a coping saw.

Bruce

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: Stour Delta
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 06:19 AM

Having tried M Mario's method and variations on it many times i've never had any success with it.
I wonder how many times this has worked for you?

Perhaps i'm not doing it right--i'll have another try.
Interesting to know how many breakages to get one good one?

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 09:05 AM

trying again - as the system has swallowed this without a trace multiple times today...

I haven't done this in ages - but when i was a kid I made an entire set (10) of glasses for my mom out of coke bottles.

I think I had one complete failure - and one other I couldn't smooth enough to drink out of.

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: Raptor
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 09:46 AM

Glass cutter- $12
Dremmel- $120

Raptor

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: onlyme
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 10:06 AM

I'm just thinking, what with National guitars being somewhere in region of $150 back in the day, and the hassle of separating necks from bottles and all that... no wonder these guys had the blues.No luck yet but plenty burnt string...

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: MudGuard
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 11:09 AM

Raptor, are the Dremel really that expensive over there in the US?
Amazon.com has the cordless version for 70$...

And a Dremel has much more possibilities than a glass cutter! ;-)

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: onlyme
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 01:44 PM

Hey Guys ..i have a bottleneck sans bottle!! for anyone who may be interested i put masking tape round the neck and used a regular junior hachsaw to score around the neck . then i used MMarios burning string idea, with the string sort of caught in the etched groove (very shallow ). Used running water rather than ice cube and off came the neck..ready to be worked with wet emery paper. Technique needs a little refining..maybe a jig of some kind, but for a none practical bloke i'm well pleased ! Thanks for the inspiration

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: onlyme
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 02:21 PM

PS Next one will be right length! :)

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: Bobert
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 02:50 PM

Take a old candle, bust it up and tie the wick 'round the bottle neck, lite it until it get real hot, then drop the entire bottle into a pail of ice cold water... Pop goes the weasel! Then, ifinz ya want to do like the old Delta guiys back in the 20's take the neck, sit you down on the side o' Highway 51 and polish the cut part by rubbin' it on the road surface...

But I like heavy brass myself.

Bobert

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: onlyme
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 02:55 PM

nice idea that ...please send Highway 51 :))

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 03:07 PM

I wonder if the diamond blade on a wetsaw would do the same thing, and in the blink of an eye? When I hand-cut specialty pieces of tile it's kind of messy because the gate is up, but that's how you'd approach cutting a bottle. I wear safety glasses and ear protection. Throw in a pair of heavy-duty gloves, and see if you can't cut that top off by touching it down to the saw as you slowly turn the bottle. Of course, a wet saw starts at about $100 for the Home Depot variety. Dremel is more portable (but probably slower since it is smaller and you are holding the tool in one hand and the bottle in the other. With the wetsaw, you're holding the bottle with both hands and have more control).

SRS

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: Bobert
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 03:20 PM

Well danged, onlyme... Hey, I won't tell no one if you wanta polish it in yer driveway... BTW, concrete works better that black top...

Bobert

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: Raptor
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 04:31 PM

At Canadian tire our Hardwear store The dremel kit with enough accesaries to use it is pretty expensive! If you just buy the dremel and than buy all the extras later it can get out of hand!

Raptor

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: ddw
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 05:10 PM

This might all be fun to do, but it seems like a helluva lot of work when you can buy a Pyrex glass tube designed specifically for slide guitar for $6 or $7 Cdn. I keep at least two of them on hand all the time, ever since I went to a gig with just one and dropped it on a tile floor. Had to borrow a brass one from somebody and didn't like it at all.

cheers,

david

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: onlyme
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 05:22 PM

Well ddw, you might say why bother playin'slide guitar when u can buy perfectly good stuff on CD ! It is ,as you suspect, fun to do !; and you get(hopefully) your own sweet sound. I may have said this earlier, but this rsonator guitar is a new venture for me , but i am right, i'm sure...:)

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: Raptor
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 05:28 PM

I just saw in a music store a new slide that is Half round and has a strap that goes around your finger and is only half inch thick so you can use that finger to chord as well its cool!

Like half a wide ring!

Raptor

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: onlyme
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 05:31 PM

Sure it was amusic store Rapor,not a medical suppliers? :)

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: onlyme
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 05:35 PM

oo ! that reads not quite as intended..i meant only to imply it might be something fix a broken finger...er dig dig stop....

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 05:44 PM

When I met Fred McDowell one evening 35 years ago, he endorsed the string-on-fire plus cold water method, followed by smoothing the edge on a concrete sidewalk.

The hard part is finding a bottle whose neck isn't too tapered or otherwise shaped inappropriately. Fred recommended Gordon's Gin.

I never tried it, because I had a pill bottle that worked perfectly well for me at the time. (I preferred the sound qualities of glass to brass, at least on my acoustic dreadnaught.) The closed end of the bottle didn't seem to hurt anything, and had the added virtue of allowing me to use my slide to contain my fingerpicks -- two metal fingerpicks dropped into the bottle, with the plastic tumbpick clipped over the rim to act as a "stopper" keeping the two metal picks inside.

Unfortunately, all the little cylindrical pill bottles these days are plastic, without the acoustic properties of glass. I've seen replica pill-bottle slides on sale at a music store -- "authentic Duane Allman model" Corecidin bottles. (That was the name of a popular over-the-counter cold remedy that came in a perfectly ring-finger-size bottle -- probably not the only medicine to come in that standard bottle.) Except -- the neo/retro/overpriced current product doesn't spell the name the same way as the '60s era cold pill -- its' something like "Corasyden" or something.

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 05:53 PM

There are some attractive bottles in craft stores, and if you look in the specialty aisle in a grocery store, some of the fancy bottles of vinegar or oil with herbs have different shaped necks.

I think the wet saw would take care of any need to rub off a sharp edge on concrete. Or just use a fine bastard file.

SRS

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: Raptor
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 05:58 PM

Called SHY_SLIDE by Jim Dunlop!
Raptor

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: Raptor
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 06:02 PM

http://www.jimdunlop.com/site/products/slides/shy/

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: onlyme
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 06:06 PM

Got it Raptor, but i.d have to see it in action .looks more for the occasional slide on an electric? but i know nothing (well i'm leaning..)

Subject: RE: bottleneck how to?
From: Chris Amos
Date: 23 Jan 04 - 01:29 AM

Another method that doesn't work is to fill a bottle with oil to the required level, then carefully plunge the tip of a meta rod heated to red heat, the neck should break off. Only it doesn't.

I used sunflower oil when I tried it, thinking about it now perhaps I should have used engine oil.

The bottleneck I use now is the nozzle from a welding torch I find the extra weight gives excellent tremolo.

Regards

Chris